Weekend Cooking is a weekly feature hosted by Beth Fish Reads, linking up food-related posts. Click here for links to other bloggers’ Weekend Cooking posts at Beth Fish Reads.
Indian Cooking Unfolded by Raghavan Iyer is everything I’d hoped it would be when I asked for it as a gift. (Last Christmas? Yikes!) The author/chef is also an instructor, so the recipes are easy to follow. He also first developed his methods as a grad student, so the recipes are Americanized (Take that, Great Britain!) but still create authentic Indian flavor. The author promises that none of the recipes will require you to visit an Indian grocery store. That right there makes it simpler to use than the average Indian cookbook!
The cookbook is beautifully designed, with a lot of black text on crisp white pages with lots of color photos of the preparation process for each recipe – not just the end results. There are pages that actually unfold, too, making more room for explanations and notes on each recipe. Those pages are designated by white text on muted color paper, which in a couple of instances, made them a tiny bit harder to read (for aging eyes) but not really much at all. I love the design layout of the book and it stays open to the recipe, too.
Click on the Google Preview here to see how the inside pages look.
You can read a lot of the book for background and enjoyment, but if you go straight to a recipe without reading anything else, you will find everything you need to know right there.
Bottom line, if you like to cook Indian food or like the idea of cooking Indian food but find it too time-consuming and complex with all its spices and exotic ingredients, you should try this book. Dinner’s not going to be ready in ten minutes, but it won’t take ten hours, either!
Indian Slaw — Bund Gobhi Nu Shaak (Vegan, Gluten-Free):
Last night for dinner: Sassy Chickpea Curry (Chana Masala — Vegan, Gluten-Free) and Nutty Broccoli with Mustard (Vegan, Gluten-Free) made with the alternative of cauliflower:
Two more plant-powered meals! Fifteen minutes of cooking was too long for the cauliflower, but I think my florets were smaller than they were supposed to be and I forgot to turn the heat down right away, so the mushiness can’t be blamed on the cookbook!
I almost forgot to mention that there’s plenty for vegetarians here – although meat recipes are included – and each recipe indicates whether it’s gluten-free, vegan, etc. Most of the recipes offer alternative versions, too, so you can use ingredients you have on hand.
Great cookbook!
I first heard of Indian Cooking Unfolded from Candace of Beth Fish Reads in a Weekend Cooking post from September 2013.
Happy Weekend Cooking!
Click on image for other posts related to the Cook It Up! challenge from Trish
at Love, Laughter, and Insanity.
What a terrific review! My son loves Indian food, I should check this book out.
I’m going to look out for this one. At the moment the library only has it in ebook format. Cheers
Nice photos and good to hear there are lots of gluten free choices.
I love the concept of this cookbook! I’ve recently been trying to use Indian flavors at home (definitely not authentic Indian food, but just using some of the flavors) and my big requirement is that I be able to find the ingredients in my grocery store.
I reviewed this one a while back — isn’t t great? was out of town all weekend, so forgive my late visit.
Sounds like a great cookbook. I like the idea of pages opening up with detailed instructions and pictures. Looks like you were able to cook up a complete meal from this book. Awesome!
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